Windmill Collapse

http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2009/12/officials_hope_to_learn_why_wi.html


zap

We had one go apart up here last Winter in a fairly high wind. The safety guardians made a big deal about it but the reality was no big whoop. Easily replaced and they fall right in their own foot print pretty much.

That must have been a helluva thud. I wonder about those kinds of failures any time I am on the Thousands Islands Bridge or the CN Tower in the wind. Seems wind will always eventually win.

CHECK THIS OUT!

look at the pic, it shows the cement still fast to the bottom. Id say that the base was to small or not enough rebar. makes u wonder about the other 19.

this is fairly common, look on youtube. what I don't understand is why don't they have it programed to turn the mill away from the wind, the reason given for these failures is that the brakes failed, the mills are directed into the wind by a windvane hooked up to a computer that runs a motor to turn them, how hard is it to program in a failsafe action.
I like windmills, but when I read how heavy these blades are and figure how far one could travel in a failure like this... you wouldn't be safe in your car.

Oh they are plenty stout enough. They just won't take a blade strike when one gets loose and starts flapping with all that harmonic imbalance. That concrete pier is massive too but it has a huge mass sitting on top of that tower. I watch these things go by me close up a lot being trucked to where ever they are going to be placed. That fiberglass lunch box completely fills an overwide flat bed tractor trailer low boy and weighs around 120,000 lbs according to the guys hauling them. Those blades are so big that a single truck delivers each individual glade to assemble with the other 2 at the site. That is one huge hunk of iron out there in the breeze. If I remember right each mill comes in 7 pieces. Three blades, three tower sections and the really heavy dynamo and cover that looks like a giant lunch box. Even the trailers that haul them are special. They are overlong with a usually locked steering section for the back wheels and pneumatically go up and down so they kneel right down to the ground if necessary. Those are pretty impressive themselves though they somehow manage to keep the whole package low and small enough to get down the secondary roads to where they set up.

I see you watched that episode of "Dangerous Drives" on Speed as well!

Nope, never saw it